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Maison Kayser February 2016 Preview

February is a busy time of the year. We have Lunar New Year (for us Asians who celebrate it), Valentine’s Day, and the assortment of food holidays like World Nutella Day (February 5th) and Pistachio Day (February 26th). Maison Kayser is helping out our busy lives by creating some beautiful and/or adorable pastries to bring to friends, family, and significant others.

Maison Kayser’s Bread of the Month is candied ginger and dark chocolate viennois ($4.95 each), a soft, fluffy-crumbed bread that is not too sweet and has a good ratio of dark chocolate chunks and medium sized chunks of fresh candied ginger to make this loaf interesting. The crunchy, coarse sugar on top added some great texture.

The Nutella eclair ($4.75) was created for Nutella Day (February 5th; seen directly above). It’s definitely for the Nutella fanatic – sweet, creamy with the caramelized hazelnut flavor dominating the palate from the filling. The crunchy chocolate pearls on top added some texture.

If you don’t care for Nutella, Maison Kayser has an assortment of flavors year round to fulfill your eclair craving like the wonderfully creamy vanilla, not-too-sweet dark chocolate and my personal favorite, pistachio that’s made with pistachio paste for its pastry cream and topped with pistachios.

For Valentine’s Day (February 14th), there’s two very adorable pastries for this holiday. The pain au chocolat des amoureux is essentially pains aux chocolat but joined together. One half is a traditional pain au chocolat and the other one has an extra fine crispy chocolate layer on top and tied with a delicate sheer pink ribbon. (Available from February 12th to February 14th; price $4.25)

The Mon Amour cake ($25) is a heart-shaped soft chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate crémeux, black currant confit and almond mousse, and covered with a shiny red glaze and topped with a black currant marshmallow and red chocolate heart. Surely, this is a better take than traditional chocolate cake. This cake could feed about six but my huge sweet tooth would say it could feed four, if I feel generous. (Available from February 12th to February 15th)

Despite the fact Maison Kayser has the pistachio cake for Pistachio Day (February 26) but for my Chinese heritage, having this for Chinese New Year is such a huge symbolic meaning for the dessert table, despite it being a French style cake. (For the non-Chinese person, pistachio literally means “happy nut,” therefore if you eat pistachios you would have happiness for the entire year.)

This pistachio cake is composed of layered soft pistachio cake, with pistachio mousseline and apricot confit, topped with chopped roasted pistachios. Swoon worthy and absolutely delectable for any occasion. (available on February 25 to February 28; individual cake $6.00, 6-person size, shown above is $38.00)

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